Platforms with Joe Wadcan // Metamuse podcast episode 63

This raises broader questions about the tech ecosystem and its investment model. I’ve been making the case for a long time that the natural endpoint is likely very large platforms and Aggregators on one-side, and a flourishing ecosystem focused on niches on the other, but implicit in the latter is that venture capital is not simply unncessary, it i... See more

These platforms have great vested interest in helping their customers succeed, and they also have cash they can put to work.

In the Web2 era, platforms like Twitter and Facebook ran powerful but temporary versions of the “commoditize the complement” strategy early in their growth phase. By giving away their products and APIs for free, the platforms were able to attract invaluable social graphs and user data, which in turn helped attract an ecosystem of third-party develo... See more

A decade ago, I was only a couple of years into my venture career. I believed that growth and progress were synonymous – in an industry where scale was the ultimate target, platforms that achieved it were glorified. A decade later, I have learned that success is more nuanced, and we have to take accountability for the outcomes we encourage. New dom... See more

And, as highlighted by Shopify’s recent announcements, BiaB Platforms end up facing a key strategic decision: how do they enable businesses on their platform to grow?

Platforms today are double-edged swords for creators: creators rely on them to grow their audience, but also want to be able to reduce their dependence on them over time.

Do they remain a Platform, or become an Aggregator?